The present invention relates to a machine for bending threadlike material such as tubes, rods, profiles or metal wire.
As is known in the prior art, for bending tubes, rods, profiles or metal wire bending machines comprising a machine bed, to which the tube the front end portion thereof must be bent is fed are conventionally used. For controllably feeding the tube, a movable carriage which can be controllably driven along parallel guides of the machine bed, the carriage being provided with a gripper assembly for locking the tube, said gripping assembly allowing moreover said tube to be controllably rotated about its longitudinal axis is used.
At the front end portion of this prior tube bending machine a plurality of overlapping bending dies which can be arranged, at will, at said tube to be bent, thereby allowing a known swinging bending arm to perform, at the front end portion of said tubes, bending operations with different bending radii and shapes are moreover provided.
Modern bending machines frequently comprise, at their front side, means for cutting away that portion of the tube which has been bent.
Moreover, prior bending machines also comprises robot controlled gripping members, chutes or conveyor belts, for moving away the bent piece.
In prior bending machines, the shaft supporting the plurality of bending dies, having different bending radii, can be driven in the direction of its longitudinal axis, to bring a selected bending die to a working position thereof, i.e. to cause said bending die to coincide with the axis of the tube to be bent.
The drive for performing the above mentioned translating movement is constructionally complex, and requires control and driving members and a die supporting shaft precisely located with respect to the tube to be bent.
Moreover, the prior bending head is designed to fit two or, at a maximum, three different bending dies, whereas a user of the bending machine would desire to have a larger number of bending dies to immediately use then without stopping the machine, thereby performing a higher number of different radius bending operations.
A further drawback of the prior bending heads is the difficulty of delicately unloading and precisely locating the pieces at the end of their bending without damaging them.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a tube bending machine, including a plurality of different bending dies which can be very quickly and accurately arranged at their working positions, and the bending head of which is so designed as to allow the machined pieces to be delicately and accurately unloaded.
According to the present invention, the above object is achieved by a machine for bending tubes, rods, profiles or metal wire, comprising a machine bed having parallel guides movably supporting a carriage for feeding, rotating and locking at a set position said tube, characterized in that the machine bed has a T-shape body, that a cross-member of the T-shape body has parallel guides supporting a controllably driven movable carriage, that said carriage has a bending head, provided with a fixed shaft supporting at the end portions thereof bending dies including corresponding swinging bending arms and that said bending head is supported by a horizontal shaft and can be controllably driven about the axis of the horizontal shaft.
In a machine having the above mentioned characteristics, it would be possible to quickly and accurately locate a bending die, selected for performing a bending operation, with respect to a tube to be bent.
For replacing the bending die it is not necessary to switch off the bending machine and, moreover, it is possible to very accurately unload the tube after having bent it, by suitably inclinating the bending head.
Moreover, the subject machine advantageously allows to perform any desired bending operations, either in a rightward or in a leftward direction. The bent piece can be unloaded either rightward or, at will, leftward with respect to the machine bed.